The Theif
by Freya-Rhianna
Summary: "5 pence is the going rate right? How much could 50 pence get me?" Remus should know better than to trust a thief, even if it was just an excuse to abandon the kissing booth.


**Written for 'thelittlepeople's' what are you doing here? challenge. (:**

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><p>"What?" Remus exclaimed, his eyes widening as he cast a dubious look at the girl before him.<p>

Lily rolled her eyes at the exclamation, and (for the umpteenth time that day) she placed her hands upon Remus' shoulders and explained slowly; "You'll be manning the kissing booth."

Remus stood stock still for a few moments, his eyes scanning over Lily's face slowly before he burst into laughter, "Oh, I thought you might have been joking." His grin rapidly disappeared at Lily's agitated look.

"Look, I don't have time to explain, just...go stand over there, okay?" She turned on her heel and began to make her way towards a stall that was loaded with various prizes where two small children were fighting over a small pocket car toy. "you only have to be there for half an hour or so, then you've done your bit, okay?" Lily called back over her shoulder before disappearing amongst the crowd.

Dragging the palm of his hand down over his face in frustration, Remus resigned himself to the lonely walk towards the obnoxiously coloured stall that promised 1 kiss for five pence.

Battling through the crowds of muggle's that had gathered before the stall, Remus cast a quick glance over the girl who was winking flirtatiously at passers-by as coins were exchanged between herself and whoever happened to be first in the haphazardly organised line.

Ducking behind the stall and out of sight, Remus was met by a collection of equally put-off souls, who were sizing each other up. Most likely they were worried that their time on display would garner the least amount of money, which wasn't even something Remus had been worrying about himself until he thought about it.

"This is a bad idea," Remus muttered to himself, tugging on the hem of his shirt self-consciously as several of the others who were also doomed to the fate of possible rejection turned their eyes upon him.

He wondered briefly how the others managed to get themselves dragged into this position, but didn't have long to contemplate it before Lily's hands were back on his wrists and tugging him closer to the entrance of the stall.

"Lily!" Remus exclaimed indignantly, trying to reclaim control of his limbs that were currently being commandeered by the red-head.

"Quit moaning." Lily chastised, a grin spread across her features as she greeted various people as they passed.

"This wasn't what I had in mind when you invited me here," Remus complained, rubbing soothing circles over the irritated skin when Lily released him.

Lily shrugged "would you have agreed to come if I had?"

"No,"

"Exactly." Lily grinned, turning to face Remus, her eyes alight with amusement "besides, like I said you only have to stand there for half an hour at most."

The watch firmly clasped around his wrist informed Remus that his shift would begin in little over five minutes if he couldn't find a way out soon, and so (with a slightly panicked look set upon his face) he tried to manoeuvre his way around a dark headed boy in search of an escape route, only to be stopped by Lily who was blocking his path.

"Come on, you can't back out on me now."

And then he was back to being man handled towards the stall once more with a look or resignation set across his face.

"Wait Lily!" He called back helplessly, but to no avail.

Suddenly he was pushed through the entrance of the booth and into the view of the crowds beyond.

Suddenly feeling exposed, Remus' gaze fell to the ground below as the crowds of people that had previously been gathered in front of the stall dispersed at the absence of the flirtatious girl.

It wasn't long, however, before several girls stepped up to the stall in the stead of the boys who had been there previously.

It was hard not to judge as girls approached the stall with a look of eagerness and several coins clutched in their hands but then, Remus supposed, he didn't really have much room to judge as here he was actually _charging_ people for the chance to kiss him.

It even sounded narcissistic in his head.

Accepting a handful of small change with dejection, Remus squeezed his eyes closed and awaited the pressure on his lips.

The kiss was awkward and uncomfortable, and Remus noted that neither he, nor the girl, had any real experience with kissing and as such didn't really know what they were doing, but the girl didn't really seem to mind as she flitted away through the crowd with a bounce in her step.

Slamming his forehead against the table top between himself and…customers?... Remus awaited the next girl without enthusiasm.

"Excuse me?" a voice asked, forcing Remus's head up as he realised someone was waiting their turn.

Her eyebrows were narrowed, but the corners of her lips were tilted up into a smile making her look mildly evil as she tapped impatiently on the wood were Remus had been resting his head moments before.

Forcing a small mound of pence pieces into his hand, the girl lent over the edge of the stall and pursed her lips expectantly.

Fighting back a wince, Remus squeezed his eyes closed and hesitantly pushed his lips forward.

"Oi!" A voice exclaimed suddenly, causing Remus to open his eyes in confusion and back away from the girl who was still leaning across the stall.

A blur of black out the corner of his eyes caught Remus' attention, and he turned his head in time to see a boy of a round about the same edge swerving their way through the stalls with a small pouch of coins clutched in his hands.

Securing one hand around the wand that he had concealed beneath his jacket, Remus vaulted over the barrier of the stall and took off after the thief.

It was only with mild guilt that Remus mused that the only reason he bothered to chase after the pocket-thief was that it also meant cutting into his time at the booth (that, despite the fact that the initial kiss had, in a way, broken him into the process, still filled him with dread) still, Lily couldn't complain, he was doing the right thing after all.

Chasing after the boy was proving to be more difficult than Remus had first anticipated however, as he was clearly rehearsed in making quick getaways and was having no trouble pushing aside people and stalls alike in favour of a clear path.

Huffing as his sides began to clench painfully, Remus decided he had had enough and (casting a quick look around at their surroundings to make sure there were no muggle's nearby) pointed his wand at a nearby oak tree and muttered a quick spell that caused one of the larger branches at the top of the trunk to snap off and collapse onto the ground in front of the thief.

There wasn't enough time for the boy to stop and so he collided with the branch, which snagged on his jeans causing yet another tear to add to the already impressive collection of rips that decorated his jeans.

The boy's leather jacket creaked as he span around to face Remus and, Remus noted with slight panic, the hilt of a wand became evident as it stuck out from the boy's pocket.

Taking a quick step backwards as he clutched the handle of his wand for protection, Remus quickly scanned over the boy's features and it was with a slight note of hysteria that he realised that he looked furious.

The boy (whose name was still unknown) took a step forward to compensate for Remus's earlier step backwards, and Remus pointed his wand ever higher as a means for protection, or at least warding away the threatening boy.

"Just give back whatever it was that you took and…and I'll let you go." Remus' voice wavered without permission, and he mentally reprimanded himself as the boy regarded him.

"Oh, you'll let me go will you?" The boy smirked, toying with the strings of the pouch he still had clutched in his hands with interest.

"Yes." Remus said with more determination, reassured that the boy wasn't going to avada kardavra him at the first chance he got.

"Hmm…" The boy seemed to be contemplating his words with interest as he took another step forward "okay."

"No, you can't-" Remus began, but cut of abruptly as he processed the boy's words. "Wait what?"

"Sure." The boy shrugged, taking another step forward "But I want something in return,"

Remus' eyes widened as all manner of horrible thoughts crossed his mind "well…what do you want?"

"5 pence is the going rate right? How much could 50 pence get me?"

Remus was in the process of mentally calculating the exact number of kissed that would purchase, when his train of thought was cut off by a pair of lips on his.

The complaint died in his throat as the boy's hand grasped hold of the hairs on the nape of Remus's neck and a second hand secured itself around the small of Remus' back, dragging their hips close together.

Grunting at the sudden lurch, Remus made to pull back but a hand that was straying down his back cut him off.

Suddenly the pouch that the boy had acquired from the fete was being pushed into Remus's back pocket, where it was left in favour of allowing the now free hand free reign of Remus' arse.

And just like that Remus was being pushed backwards away from the boy who's grin was stretched across his face.

"see you some other time lover boy." The boy grinned, before offering Remus a quick wink and taking off once more leaving Remus still standing beside the collapsed oak tree feeling more than a little dazed.

At least he'd gotten back the stolen goods, Remus reasoned, his hand falling to his back pocket to extract the pouch.

Worrying away the entrance to the string drawn pouch, Remus thrust one hand in side only for his hands to come into contact with something too rough and too sharp to be considered usual for coins.

Frowning, Remus extracted a collection of the supposed 'coins' only to see that, clutched in his palms, were only dirt smothered pebbles that were evidently extracted from the floor not too long ago.

Groaning, Remus tipped the rest of the pouch upside down to unveil the remaining number of pebbles that the pouch had been filled with.

And then, in a moment of panic, Remus' slid his hand back into his back-pocket to extract the coins that he had accumulated from his time manning the stool, only to find that those too had been replaced by the same pebbles that had been stuffed into the pouch.

Eyeing the pebbles with disdain, Remus was in the process of hurling them to the ground below when he noticed a small slither of paper that had been tacked to one of the pebbles.

The word _Scabior _had been scrawled across it in clumsy calligraphy.

Remus re-read the note several more times, before looking up in the direction the boy had disappeared from and called out, in a form of retribution "Scabior's a stupid name."


End file.
